Time Trapped
by XIIIth Hazard
Summary: Xana seems to have disappeared, but the Lyoko Warriors must still face a new challenge; when a man comes out of the scanners, claiming to be saving their Future. But as his presence starts to look more and more like one of Xana's tactical attacks, can they really "risk" not believing him, when the destruction of the Timeline would be the price?
1. Prologue

Takes place between Season 2 and Season 3.

This is my First Code Lyoko story, so please be nice. ;)

I don't own Code Lyoko

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 _Time Trapped_

Prologue:

In the courtyard of a school under the name of Kadic, students exited the cafeteria in order to head for their next classes, though for some it was hard to hide their enthusiasm as it was their last day before a three-week holiday began.

Though in the case of five particular teenagers; family visits, camping trips and whatnot were the last things on their minds, which made their conversation anything but normal.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Yumi asked as they converged on their usual bench to talk privately among themselves for the rest of their lunch hour. "What if Xana attacks?"

"We haven't seen anything of him since he escaped the supercomputer." Jeremy proclaimed as he pulled out his laptop in order to type on it for a bit, checking several scans to see if they had located the evil virus yet, but no luck.

"Maybe he finally gave up." Odd suggested with not a lot of hope in his voice as he moved to sit on the back of the bench.

"Not likely," Ulrich added.

"Which is _why_ I think we should all stay _here_ for the vacation." Yumi pointed out sternly.

"Yumi, we've got a good system." Aelita announced. "You can go on the camping trip with your family for the first week, then Odd and Ulrich can go on theirs' for the second."

"What about _you_ , Princess, don't you want to do anything?" Odd added, causing her to smile at him.

"No, I better stay with Jeremy."

"So, it's okay for _you two_ to run yourselves ragged, but not _us_?" He countered, causing her to pause as she realized she'd just been called out.

"Maybe you should go with Yumi, Aelita. Her parents already said it was okay." Jeremy proclaimed truthfully.

"You do realize _you_ are apart of this conversation too, _right_?" Ulrich stated with a grin as he reached out to lay a hand on his genius-friend's shoulder, only for said person to wave him away.

"I've got too much work to do." He muttered leaving Odd and Ulrich to look at each other knowingly before shaking their heads, having learned long ago to just give up on the idea of ever hoping for Jeremy to actually act like a normal human being.

"Besides, I –" Jeremy started again only to be interrupted by the five-minute bell, alerting them to the fact that they had to go to their next torture session – or, uh, _class_.

They, therefore, agreed to discuss it more later; leaving Yumi to head for her Italian class and the others got up to go to science with Mrs. Hertz.

Unfortunately for them, the woman had a surprise quiz in store for them, which seemed more like half of an SAT given that it she'd seemed to think that _four_ pages of complex questions was just what they needed to kick off the vacation.

Jeremy and Aelita were done _long_ before their time was up, having to protect their given names of Mr. and Mrs. Einstein of course. However, it was only thanks to Aelita elbowing him in the side several times that Odd didn't get detention or worse for falling asleep during this event.

Ulrich, as usual, seemed to be completely stressed out. Give the kid a sword and he'd single-handedly save the world, but give him a science test and suddenly he was falling apart at the seams.

But, thankfully, for the unprepared teenagers about 5 minutes before they would have faced the end of their doom, every light in the room decided to take this opportunity to shut off, along with the power; causing the four battle-hardened Lyoko Warriors to grow concerned while the rest of the class cheered, forcing their teacher to lay down the law.

"Jeremy?" Aelita asked worriedly as they turned to look at the genius who pulled out his laptop again in order to check for an activated Tower.

"There's nothing on the scan." He announced after a moment, leaving them to turn in order to listen to Mrs. Hertz as she talked to the Principle via her phone, learning that it wasn't just their building, instead the whole _city_ seemed to be experiencing the power outage.

"Could it just be a _coincidence_?" Odd asked simply as he turned back to his friends, but they didn't have an answer.

"I'm trying to figure that – out –" Jeremy finished slowly as he found something, leaving his friends to quickly look back at him, waiting to hear the bad news.

"What is it?" Aelita asked before Jeremy promptly shut his computer as it started to beep profusely, having just managed to keep it undetected by their teacher before he looked up to answer her.

"I don't know, but, whatever it was, all of the power in the city has just been _rerouted_ straight to the _factory_."

…

It was at this time, that a supercomputer not far from the school, lit up with activity as several programs and files flashed by on its severer in fast succession, causing all the lights in the room to flare to the point of nearly whiting out the whole scene, in response to an overload of energy being pumped through the system.

But the firewalls forced it back and the power died again a set of doors from one of three scanners on the floor below _opened_ , bathing the room in a soft, gold glow and filling it with smoke as a process that operated on both space and time was finally completed.

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	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

When the lights came on again, about an hour later, the Lyoko Warriors were already outside with the rest of their class, trying to find a moment to sneak away, but instead were forced to listen as the whole building groaned with the voices of several hundred students, complaining of having to return to their classrooms. And it seemed their dread was confirmed a moment later when the intercom announced the presence of their Principle.

"Due to technical problems, all remaining classes are _canceled_." The man proclaimed causing the moans to quickly erupt into cheering; however, five students in particular remained generally quiet as they gathered back at the bench, before rushing for the nearby forest.

"Technical problems?" Yumi repeated as they ran.

"It's the _law_." Jeremy explained distractedly. "They can't _legally_ keep students in school if the power is out longer than 30 minutes."

"Sweet," Odd added as he looked around at all the other kids rushing about to accomplish things with their newly appointed free time, making sure that none of them were following his group.

"So, what caused it?" Ulrich requested next.

" _Something_ at the factory just took a _ridiculous_ amount of power to operate." Jeremy explained seriously as they reached the tunnel and started climbing down the ladder into the sewer system. "I don't know what it was, but it can't be good – even going back in _time_ doesn't take that much energy."

"Okay, Einstein, we get it." Odd announced as he grabbed his skateboard. "Big, bad power outage equals _run faster_."

…

When he finally regained consciousness, it was only to groan slightly in response to an incredibly annoying _beeping_ sound and opened his eyes to look down at a strange watch on his wrist which displayed that he'd been out far longer than had been intended and on top of that, a certain _someone_ was heading his way.

"Crud," He swore and reached up to use the walls of the scanner to pull himself to his feet, before pausing as nostalgia hit him like a sack of potatoes and he looked around the familiar room outside that he hadn't seen in _years_.

Unfortunately, he couldn't reminisce too long, as memories of his _mission_ came flooding back and he forced himself to climb out of the machine, even though his body complained painfully of the movement.

He was forced to take it slow as he reminded himself how to walk again, but before long he finally made it to the elevator and leaned against the wall as it took him up a floor.

Having to nearly drag himself over to the chair was a chore in and of itself, but once there, he was able to pull a small device from his pocket and placed it into the right socket on the side of the computer before watching as it ran several programs on the screen, allowing him to rest in the chair as it did most of the work for him.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of time to regain his composure before the sound of the elevator being called up alerted him to the fact that he was running out of time.

"Come on." He ordered the device as it continued through it's process, until finally it announced that it was finished and he pulled it back out as he rushed to the ladder at the back of the room and climbed up into the shadows of the rafters, just as the doors opened again, emitting the five Lyoko Warriors who were all positioned in fighting stances, ready for whatever awaited them on the other side.

However, it didn't take them long to realize that nothing was there, at least nothing they could _see_ , which prompted Jeremy to rush to the computer where he immediately started checking over everything and a moment later, his friends followed, leaving them all distracted just long enough for their _visitor_ to slip away unnoticed.

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	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"So, what happened?" Yumi asked as they crowded around the computer to watch Jeremy as he read through everything in search of an attack.

"I don't know." He admitted distractedly. "According to this, all the power was just rerouted to the computer and then dispersed." He explained as he continued his typing before stopping suddenly as he spotted something.

"What is it?" Aelita stated quietly.

"Something was – _materialized_." He stated in a shocked tone, which caused Ulrich, Yumi and Odd to _immediately_ head for the elevator, where they went down to the next floor and once again walked into the room with a paranoid air about them as they checked each of the scanners for movement, but still nothing presented itself.

"There's nothing here, Jeremy." Yumi called toward the ceiling, knowing that their friend could hear them through the speakers.

"Then it must be somewhere in the factory." Ulrich pointed out, which didn't go over well with his friends. Considering the last thing Xana had sent them had been a group of _killer Krabs_ that had quite nearly _decapitated_ one of their members, they were not too thrilled with the idea of something _else_ loose in their world.

"We have to find it before it hurts someone." Jeremy ordered, causing them to quickly get into the elevator again and head back up to the upper floors; where the search began.

…

He complained quietly as he made his way through the boiler room, still struggling to regain some of his lost energy. Apparently, time travel really took it out of you.

However, he wasn't given a lot of time to rest before he realized he'd been _discovered_ and quickly hid behind some large piece of long forgotten machinery as Odd and Ulrich rushed through the entrance he'd just used himself in search of their intruder.

"Figures," Said trespasser proclaimed under his breath before carefully circling his hiding place as the two walked the other way on high alert, until finally he could dash into another room, without being seen.

Unfortunately for him, it worked out until the ' _being seen_ 'part.

"Hey!" Yumi called as she spotted him from her own position, forcing the man to book it further into the factory as the other two reconvened on her location and followed. However, they weren't fast enough to see him duck into another hallway through the maze of rooms that made up the factory, and proceeded to expertly weave his way around the building with the ease and grace of someone that had been there _many_ times before.

He was able to get to a small room that screamed ' _inconspicuous_ ' and rested for a moment as his pursuers continued their search of the area. But, unfortunately, he knew it wouldn't be long before they looked _there_ as well and on top of that he still wasn't that up for a chase.

But, thankfully, he was aware of an exit nearby and carefully made his way out of his hiding spot again, when his three shadows passed him by, before sneaking further down the hall.

When he finally found the correct door, he wasn't surprised to find it _locked,_ given how his luck had been holding up the last few minutes. But with a short step back and kick to the handle he was able to enter without further complications; where he quickly headed for the wall of windows that made up the front of the building.

"What was that?" He heard Ulrich yell from behind him, but paid them no mind as he casually walked toward the nearest window, grabbing a chair as he did so, and proceeded to use it to smash out the glass; bringing even more attention to himself in the process.

…

"In here." Ulrich called out as he rushed into the room, only to stop in his tracks as realized that he had finally found his target, however it wasn't the monster he had been expecting; but a _person_ , and, unfortunately, with his face shadowed by the hood of his sweatshirt, he couldn't tell who it was.

"Ulrich," Yumi stated as she and Odd arrived behind him and they quickly prepared for a fight as they stared down the mystery person. But, instead of acting like a normal Xanafied human, the guy just stood calmly by the window, watching them from the corner of his eye while they continued to hold their battle-ready stances.

"What's the matter _Xana_? Not up to snuff?" Odd joked after a moment of tense silence, which caused the stranger to do something they really hadn't expected.

He _smiled_

It wasn't as if the people Xana possessed weren't above grinning evilly when it looked like the virus was winning, but this was different; this smile was more one of _amusement_ rather than gloating.

"Who are you?" Ulrich suddenly demanded, seeming to realize that this guy _wasn't_ possessed, however he didn't respond and instead just turned to duck through the window and out onto the grass outside. "Hey!" Ulrich called after him before the three made chase again.

They actually heard the stranger _sigh_ this time before stopping again, as if resigning himself to the fact that he'd been caught, before turning back to look at them; allowing the three to make out the face of someone that was likely in their 20's.

"I _asked_ you a question." Ulrich commanded sternly, causing the man to laugh lightly, which did not go over well with the kid, who promptly charged.

"Ulrich!" Yumi complained, but he didn't listen, instead using his finely honed fighting skills to kick out at their opponent, who quietly ducked under it like he did this kind of thing everyday.

"Oh, come on, you can do better than that." The stranger stated with a grin, causing Ulrich to start slightly before trying again and again – and again to take him down, but every attempt he made to hit the man was met with nothing but thin air, and what's more the other guy didn't seem to be interested at all in fighting back, despite having plenty of opportunities to take him out.

However, that all changed when Odd and Yumi rushed in to help their friend, prompting the stranger to suddenly trip Ulrich up just enough to send him flying toward his backup, which in turn left them all in a tangle of limbs on the ground for half a second as they struggled to right themselves again, only to look around in shock as they discovered their opponent had disappeared.

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Please leave a review, I'd like to know if anyone is liking this story.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"What happened, are you alright?" Aelita asked as her friends walked out of the elevator with an air of annoyance about them.

"Yeah, we're fine." Odd announced quietly, causing Ulrich to huff.

"If you call what just happened ' _fine_ '." He added sourly.

"The important thing is; no one was hurt." Yumi amended sternly.

"Not _yet_." Ulrich corrected. "That guy just took out all _three_ of us in less than a second."

"Sounds like a _personal_ issue to me." Yumi countered as she folded her arms to glare at him, causing the kid to look away. "If you wouldn't mind shelving your injured ego for a moment, we have a major _problem_ here."

"We saw everything from the cameras." Jeremy added, leaving them all to look at him. "But, I wasn't able to get a look at his face, did you –"

"No," Odd answered before he was finished. "It was covered; seems he doesn't want us to know who he is."

"He had dark blond hair." Ulrich put in seriously and they looked at him, obviously hoping that he would continue, but, unfortunately, that appeared to be the extent of his knowledge.

"Alright –" Jeremy stated sourly as he turned back to his computer. "That narrows it down to about _half_ the population of the _planet_."

"Then let's do a Return to the Past and _catch him_ before he can –" Ulrich tried only to be interrupted.

"That won't work." Jeremy proclaimed as he brought up a window, and everyone crowded around the screen to watch the camera in the scanner room show what had transpired during the power outage.

They proceeded to watch as lights on the camera flickered briefly while one of the scanners closed its doors before the brightness in the room nearly blinding them for a moment; then returned to normal just in time for the doors to open once again and reveal the body of the person they had been fighting with earlier.

Watching a little longer, they realized he had been unconscious for quite a while before finally waking up and struggled into the elevator, clearly exhausted and likely in a great deal of pain.

"If he came out of the scanner, a Return to the Past would do _nothing_." Jeremy explained once the video was over. "Plus, we can't _risk_ _it_ until we know for _sure_ that he's a _threat_."

"He came out of the _scanner_." Ulrich repeated, causing Jeremy to sigh. "Of _course_ he's a threat."

"There isn't an activated Tower." Aelita pointed out.

"Then Xana must have a new attack method."

"If that's the case, then why didn't he go after Aelita, or _any_ of us for that manner?" Jeremy countered quietly, causing Ulrich to pause as he tried to come up with an answer for that.

"Do you think it could be my _father_?" Aelita added hopefully, causing the room to go quiet as they watched her turn to Jeremy with a look in her eyes that seemed to almost _beg_ him to tell her this suggestion was the _correct_ one.

"I don't know." He admitted kindly after a moment of thought. "But I'll keep working on it. If he _is_ connected to Franz Hopper, I'll find out _how_.

…

"You feeling alright?" The waiter asked and he to look up as the woman placed his food in front of him with a worried expression, clearly having noticed how exhausted he was.

"Yeah, I'm just hungry." He said with a smile that caused her to immediately blush in response.

"I haven't seen you around here before." She noticed as she fiddled with her tray a bit and moved a bit of her hair behind her ear.

"It's been a while since I've been here." He admitted kindly.

"Oh – y-you've lived here before?" She asked shyly, clearly wondering if maybe she should just shut up and leave him to his meal, but he made it obvious that he was very happy to have her company.

"Yeah, a _long_ time ago," He stated quietly as he picked up his burger and took a bite, humming to himself slightly as the taste invigorated him a little.

"What's your name?" She asked next and he turned back to look at her as he considered telling. In truth, he didn't belong in this timeline, so he shouldn't be interacting with _anyone_ , even strangers, but given that it was very likely that he would be _forced_ to make a life here, he figured he might as well start now.'

" _Jonas_ ," He answered with a rehearsed _lie_ and a smile. "Jonas _Stones_."

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	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

"Did you find anything?" Aelita asked as she and her other friends walked out of the elevator, after going back to school in order to make sure everything was okay. Oddly enough, it appeared that Xana had nothing to do with any of this newest weirdness.

"You could say that." Jeremy admitted sourly as they gathered around him and he pulled up a new video, this one of the lab, showing the very computer they were looking at as their intruder limped over to the chair and plugged something into the main frame.

"Whatever he did there, it must have _removed_ the knowledge of his transfer from the system." Jeremy continued mutely. "The programs that brought him here, his ID card, _everything_."

"Can you get them back?" Yumi put in only for their friend to shake his head.

"Unfortunately, no, it was a _complete_ removal. I don't know who this guy is, but he was _prepared_."

"What about the _cameras_?" Ulrich asked, pointing at said video. "He didn't get _them_."

"Likely because he didn't have _time_." Jeremy proclaimed just as the movie showed the stranger getting out of the chair in a hurry, so he could climb up into the rafters of the lab, just as the five of them arrived in the elevator.

"I don't believe it." Odd stated as he looked up at the space. "He must have been right above us the whole time."

"We really need to start paying more attention to these things." Ulrich muttered sourly under his breath.

"Good news is I do have a _plan_ for finding him." Jeremy added quickly, causing them all to look back at him again as he started typing away on something. "That little device he used might have left a _signal_ behind, if I can _find it_ – we can _track_ him."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Odd complained jokingly, leaving everyone to smile for a moment as they waited for Jeremy to work his magic.

…

"There –" He called after several minutes, causing them all to quickly rush back over to the chair, after having moved about the area to keep from dying of boredom. "I've got it." He announced with a smile as they watched a map of the area show up on screen and rotate a bit in an attempt to find the location of the signal.

However, when it did, his grin promptly dropped.

"What is it, where is he?" Ulrich demanded, only to receive an answer in the form of Jeremy jumping out of his chair and rushing to the elevator, throwing out his answer as more of an afterthought than anything.

"He's at the _school._ " He proclaimed worriedly as his friends followed him into the elevator, still trying to find out what was so bad about that – until he _finished_ the statement that is – then they completely understood.

"He's in my _room_."

…

"Wow." Jonas stated as he looked up at the academy and smiled. He'd almost forgotten what it looked like. He made to quickly duck behind a pillar as a form he recognized all too well as _Jim Morales_ walked by, before moving to make his way through a door that he knew would take him to the stairwell.

Thankfully, he only ran into one other person on his way upstairs, but the younger boy was too concerned with rushing off to start his three-week vacation to even notice someone that was clearly too old to still be at their school, walking the halls.

Once he'd reached a seemingly random door he knelt down to carefully pull a set of lock-picks from his pocket, which allowed him to enter the room with barely 30 seconds going by.

"I can't believe he still has that." Jonas laughed as he eyed the poster of Einstein on the wall before walking over to the computer at the other end of the room and sat down.

Pulling the same little device he had used before from his pocket and stuck it into this computer as well, he then quickly started typing as the thing did its job. However, once again his task was interrupted when his watch beeped and he looked down to realize that the Lyoko Warriors had discovered he was there, given that their location was quickly converging on his.

"Good thing I have a lot of _time_ on my hands." He joked sourly as he finished the message and once again removed the device before making like a tree and left the building before he was discovered.

"Hey, who are you?" Jim commanded as he slipped out the opposite way his pursuers were taking, only to run into the slightly over weight teacher. "Non-students are not allowed in the dormitories." He proclaimed sternly as he stormed up to the younger man.

"That's right, I'm sorry Jim." He stated cheerily, as if he'd just remembered such a thing, causing the man to stop and raise an eyebrow at him.

"Do I know you?" He asked skeptically as Jonas walked up to pat him on the shoulder respectfully.

"Not _yet_." He answered truthfully before heading for the school gate, leaving the confused and misinformed man in his wake.

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	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

"This is getting ridiculous." Jeremy complained as he opened his door, which he was sure had been _locked_ before he left that morning and walked to his computer to find it seemingly oblivious to the fact that it had just been hacked, leaving him to grumble again as he sat down to figure out what the stranger was planning.

"I don't get it, who is this guy, what does he _want_?" Ulrich stated sternly as he walked back out into the hall in the hopes of spotting their mystery ghost.

"I'm beginning to wonder if he's even _real_." Odd admitted dryly.

"Oh, he's real, I just don't know what he wants, or _why_." Jeremy countered seriously as he continued to type, but found nothing to indicate that there was a problem.

"Okay, Jeremy," Ulrich added as he stormed back into the room. "This has gone on long enough; we need to _find_ this guy before he does something we're going to regret."

"I agree." Yumi put in, leaving Jeremy to nod before connecting to his computer at the factory and pulled up the program he'd left running there, in order to locate the stranger once again.

"I don't believe it." He complained loudly.

"What, where is he now?" Ulrich demanded as his friend started typing in a fit of irritation.

"He's on his way back to the _factory_." He proclaimed causing them all to panic slightly.

"You gotta be kidding." Yumi stated seriously. "He's leading us around in _circles_. It's like he _knows_ everything we're going to do."

"Yeah, well, he's gonna have to think fast to avoid us _this time_." Jeremy threatened as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket to check something before smiling as the tracking program was transferred, allowing them to follow him _on the go_.

"Got him!"

…

Jonas hummed slightly to himself as he walked around the corner and looked down the street to where he could see the factory and smiled.

"I could have sworn it was _bigger_." He muttered before casually lounging out on an abandoned bus bench and continued to hum his little tune as he waited for his shadows.

Thankfully, he didn't have to die of boredom before his watch beeped again and he looked back down the road to find someone pulling themselves out of the hole in the bridge, followed closely by four more, who all immediately rushed into the factory, leaving Jonas to get up and follow a minute later when he was sure they couldn't see him.

…

"Now where is he?" Ulrich asked around his heavy breathing as they dropped down from the ropes, intending to enter the elevator, until Jeremy suddenly called for them to stop.

"Hold on," He proclaimed as he studied his phone again before turning to look back up at the main entrance where they had just come in, only to find their target smiling down at them with his hands in his pockets, like he was simply there to deliver their mail.

"Zup?" He asked casually, causing them all to drop into fighting stances which he only laughed about. "Okay, you guys seriously need to take a chill pill." He informed them as he crouched down to look at them more clearly. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He added kindly.

"Yeah, right," Ulrich countered. " _Who_ are you?"

"It's probably better if I _don't_ answer that question." He admitted simply. "So, why don't you just call me Jonas?"

"Fine," Ulrich growled under his breath. "What do you _want_ – _Jonas_?"

This left the man to smile at him again and laugh lightly. "You're not still mad about me kicking your ass, are you?"

"No!" The younger one answered quickly, perhaps _too_ quickly, for it seemed that the target of his argument didn't believe him.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, I've had _military_ training." Jonas proclaimed with a smile.

"What exactly is it that you want?" Aelita put in then, before Ulrich could continue with the useless bantering, causing the man to look at her with a truly genuine smile.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Princess, but I'm _not_ here because of your father." He admitted kindly causing her to back up a step in shock. There were only _four_ people in the world that called her Princess and knew about her father to boot, and they were all _standing with her_.

"Who _are_ you?" She tried again, leaving the man to sigh before reaching out to grab one of the ropes and quietly slid down to talk with them face to face.

"Like I said, I can't really answer that." He repeated as he stood back at his full height and stuck his hands into his pockets once again. "But I can tell you that I'm a _friend_."

"Yeah, right," Ulrich complained again. "And _why_ should we believe that?" He added causing the man to turn to him with an almost serious air about him before saying a simple word; that _proved_ he was telling the truth, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

" _Scipio_ "

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	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Though that single word was enough to prove, without a doubt, that whoever this Jonas person was, he was indeed _friendly_ , it was still weird bringing a complete stranger into the lab.

Considering that ' _Scipio'_ had become their _codeword_ of sorts, used when it was necessary to tell the difference between one of them and a Xana fake. They had gone to great lengths to keep that knowledge between _them_ , never speaking of it when around technology or other people so their enemy would never find out.

But that wasn't to say Xana hadn't found his way into _other_ deep dark secrets, for all they knew Jonas was just a specter, trying to trick them into trusting him.

"By the way," Jonas proclaimed as they rode the elevator down, causing them to look at him as he leaned into a corner on the other side of the room by himself. "What _year_ is it?"

"2006," Jeremy answered simply.

"And the _day_?"

"The 19th of August." Jeremy answered again with a questioning tone in his voice. "Why?" He added when the man made a disgruntled face.

"It would seem I overshot my mark." He muttered leaving them to look at him curiously.

"What does that mean?" Odd asked and the guy quietly looked at him before grinning again.

"Nothing for you guys to worry about."

"You know for someone who's supposed to be our _friend_ , you keep an awful lot of _secrets_." Ulrich pointed out causing the man to shrug.

"I could say the same to you." He countered, which they couldn't really deny.

It was at that moment the doors opened again, allowing the five of them to quietly walk into the room beyond, only looking back when they realized Jonas wasn't with them.

"What's the problem?" Ulrich demanded as the man continued to lean against the wall with his hands in his pockets, clearly content to just stay where he was.

"I just realized I haven't _slept_ in a – _while_." He admitted simply before moving to actually lie down on the spot. "Wake me in about 5 minutes, would ya?" He proclaimed before closing his eyes, leaving the others shocked and a little miffed.

"What?" Ulrich proclaimed in disbelief before turning back to his friends who looked just as lost as he did. "Who do you think we are – your _maid service_?" He muttered sourly, but didn't receive a response.

"Wait – he can't be asleep _already_." Aelita complained as she walked back to check, only to realize that he was in fact out cold.

"Guess he was tired." Odd added simply, leaving them all to sigh dejectedly.

"Okay, I've had just about enough of this. We need to figure out _who_ he is and _what_ he wants." Ulrich demanded.

"What's got you so uptight lately?" Odd stated earning a glare from his roommate.

"I don't _trust_ him." He stated sternly.

"That's obvious." Jeremy pointed out leaving Ulrich to sigh loudly.

"Okay so – maybe I'm a little – _anxious_." He admitted. "I don't like it when things are beyond my control. Xana at least is _predictable_."

"I admit this is all _very_ confusing." Jeremy muttered as he sat in his chair and turned to the computer, only to pause in his motion to type when he noticed a flashing envelop on the screen. "What?" He asked it quietly before opening the message only to find it _encrypted_.

"What is it?" Aelita asked as she walked up to see it as well.

"I have no idea." Jeremy admitted before running a program to break the code, only for the process to shut down before it even started. "Hey," He complained and tried again with the same results.

"What's wrong?" She put in again, leaving Jeremy to shake his head.

"I used this program to decode your Franz Hopper's _journals_ ; it shouldn't have a problem with a simple _message_." He proclaimed as he attempted to start the process once again, only for it to pull up an error box stating that no encryption was found. "Yes there was." He announced in annoyance.

"You're talking to the computer again." Odd joked, earning a glare for his trouble, but, as always, he took it with a grain of salt.

…

"It is _too_ encrypted." Jeremy yelled after having battled with his computer for several minutes.

"Okay, I think someone needs a timeout." Odd whispered into Yumi's ear, causing her to laugh slightly before they were interrupted.

"Actually – it _isn't_." Jonas suddenly put in causing them all to turn and find him sitting up again. "It's a _language_ , not an encryption." He explained before getting to his feet and carefully walked around everyone in order to get to the computer and read over the massage.

"Than what does it say?" Jeremy demanded sourly, when it was clear that he understood every word on the page.

"Nothing too serious," He announced before reaching out to delete it despite Jeremy's protests. "Say, you think I could use the computer for a second?" He added randomly. "Thanks." He stated before even receiving an answer.

"What – hey!" Jeremy proclaimed in shock as Jonas tapped his foot against a level on the side of the chair, causing it to quickly zip around the room, taking him with it and leaving the man to type something into the system.

"Get away from there!" Ulrich added threateningly as he charged the guy, only to find himself pinned under a foot a moment later as Jonas just continued to type.

"Alright, that's enough." Odd ordered, suddenly serious as he charged as well, even though he already knew he didn't stand a chance against this guy's ninja moves. However, when he attempted to hit him something unexpected happened.

Instead of knocking him back, or taking him out; Jonas just jumped out of the way and backed up several steps, even though he clearly wasn't finished with whatever it was he had been doing.

"Anywho," The man proclaimed, as if talking of the weather, before walking around the room in order to enter the elevator again, leaving everyone in a state of shock as they watched him. "Sorry to hit and run, but I gotta do a few things." He announced before pushing the big red button on the wall, causing the doors to close again as he waved at them good-naturedly.

"Okay, so – _that_ just happened." Odd stated slowly before moving to help Ulrich to his feet and Jeremy walked over to check on the computer, finding that nothing appeared to be wrong with it.

"Yeah –" Yumi admitted as she looked back at the elevator doors. "Question is – _what_ just happened?"

"I have no idea, but it looks like he was trying to send a massage." Jeremy explained as he eyed the newly encrypted text, trying to figure out what it said, but only sighed as he realized it was hopeless. "Aelita, maybe we should –" He started again as he looked to where she had been standing; only to find that she had _disappeared_.

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	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Aelita took the opportunity of her friends shocked reaction to Jonas's seemingly calm, cool and collected manner, to sneak to the back of the room and climb the ladder up to the boiler room and, from there, to the factory floor where she made it just in time to catch the man as he stood in the doorway, looking out at something.

"Jonas?" She asked, causing him to turn to her and smile as she ascended the stairs to stand with him. "What are you doing?" She added, looking around herself to find what it was he had been staring at, only discovering that night had nearly fallen in all the chaos of the last several hours.

"Just – admiring the view." He admitted before turning back and she realized that he was looking at the _stars_ , which caused her to look up as well.

She could certainly understand his fascination with the lights, as she too had grown fond of watching them since her materialization, only recently realizing what had been taken from her after the men in black had forced her and her father to seek refuge on Lyoko.

"How long?" She asked randomly, causing him to hum slightly in question, without taking his eyes off the sky and she turned to look at him again, noticing the almost _sad_ air about him. "How long has it been since you've _seen_ them?" She revised understandingly, causing him to smile before looking at her.

"A very _long_ time." He admitted quietly, leaving her to meet his eyes for a moment as they shared an understanding. However, something else hit her while they stood there watching each other, his _eyes_ – theywere – _familiar_.

"Why do I feel like I _know_ you?" She asked quickly, causing him to laugh.

"I have that effect on people."

"Don't give me that." She berated sternly. "You seem so _familiar_ , but I don't know – _why_?"

"It's probably better that it _stays_ that way." He proclaimed kindly and she was about to respond when movement outside caught their attention and they turned in time to watch several black forms climb onto the bridge and zero in on them.

"No – not _now_ ," Jonas complained quietly as he took a step back causing her to follow nervously.

"What – who are they?"

"No time for fifty questions, go back down to the lab, _right now_." He ordered sternly, leaving her confused and lost as he moved to stand between her and the human-like forms descending on them, which she quickly realized were _see-through_.

"They're _specters_." She proclaimed as she came to this understanding and prepared to fight herself, but Jonas wasn't going to hear it.

"No, Aelita these are _not_ your average Xanafied wisps of smoke, now _go_ to the lab." He ordered again before one of the creatures charged them, forcing him to run to intercept it, grappling with the thing's sword as it tried to cut him in half.

"Jonas," She said worriedly as he was pushed back from the attack.

"Go now!" He commanded in such a stern and angry voice that all she could do was obey; quickly using the rope to swing back down to the lower floor and landed in front of the elevator, which she could hear coming up again, likely with Jeremy and the others on-board.

However, before she could reach it, another specter _phased_ out of the ground just in front of her, where it quickly prepared it's swords with a soft _shing_.

"Aelita!" She heard Jeremy call in a panic while she backed away from the creature only to walk directly into a steel beam that gave her nowhere to go as the specter's swords sliced through the air toward her and she couldn't help but scream in terror while she raised her arms to defend herself.

However, moments before her inevitable death, a pair of strong arms lifted her away from the scene just before the sound of steel hitting concrete echoed through the room.

"Aelita?" Jeremy called again as her friends rushed to her aid and she looked around to discover Jonas had been the one to save her. "Aelita, are you okay?" Jeremy added in a panic, moving in to grab her face softly, as if worried he would never see her again.

"Yes, I'm fine." She insisted sternly, trying to right herself and stop her shaking in an attempt to get back in the fight she was aware was still going on.

"Yeah, well _he's_ not." Odd pointed out and she quickly looked around to discover Jonas holding his side in clear discomfort, even though he was smiling at her again.

"You're hurt," She said worriedly and rushed to move his hand so she could see how bad it was, however he wouldn't let her.

"Aelita, it's okay, I'm fine." He insisted.

"You're _not_ fine." She countered sternly, still trying to pry his hand away, but he seemed to have the strength of ten men plus one. "Let me see!" She ordered loudly causing him to flinch before sighing dejectedly and finally moved his hand.

However, the blood that she had expected to see was missing from the afflicted area, in fact there didn't appear to be any _wound_ at all, not even a nick in his clothes. Instead, there was only the _shimmer_ of partials as they rearranged themselves back into their normal position.

"I _knew_ it." Ulrich proclaimed when he saw it too and pulled her away as the five of them gathered into a group to defend their position. "He's a _specter_."

* * *

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	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

"I knew there was something strange about you." Ulrich continued loudly as he glared at Jonas with all the fire of a sun, while the rest of his friends turned to face the other specters surrounding them. "You work for _Xana_ , don't you?" He bellowed in anger, only to receive a loud sigh in return as Jonas moved to stand at his full height again and turned to face his enemies.

"So much for _subtle_." He complained before reaching up to touch the face of his watch ever so slightly and charged into battle as his form _morphed_ into something else entirely, leaving the Lyoko Warriors to watch in astonishment as he fought off the specters one after the other.

The first one in the group didn't stand a chance as Jonas simply grabbed one of its swords and shoved it through the creature's stomach, causing it to dissipate a moment later as it fell to the floor, leaving the guy to continue with his war and level another one into the ground by grabbing its face – or the strange blob of black that _appeared_ to be its face – and pushed it straight off its feet to crush the body into the concrete.

As it too disappeared, Jonas turned to find one trying to sneak up on him but quickly used the sword he had commandeered from the first to slice through its abdomen, sending it to oblivion as well, before throwing the tip of the sword into the ground and used it to swing himself around and kick another one in the chest so hard that it was sent flying across the room.

He kept up this pace for the last two as well and eventually all was quiet again as the black forms of specters dissipated into nothing, leaving them alone once more.

"Whoa!" Yumi broke the tense silence that followed as she and her friends looked around in shock.

In truth, the Lyoko Warriors really hadn't expected that kind of turn out, considering the specters they had always encountered in the past had been more or less _invincible._ To watch them fall and not get up, not to mention walk around in specter-form without the need of a possessed _person_ , who could likely be _hurt_ or worse from an attack, was – _surprising_.

"Remind me not to get on _his_ bad side." Odd added mutely.

"I don't think that'll be a problem." Jeremy added as he took a step toward Jonas, who hadn't moved since dispatching the last enemy, instead just stood where he was, looking at the ground as if resigning himself to his fate.

However, the younger teenagers didn't appear interested in berating him further for the apparent betrayal, or even yell at him for keeping such a secret. Instead they just slowly circled the man as they continued to take in the new form he displayed, becoming more and more convinced of just _who_ was standing in front of them.

Eventually when they were staring each other down like statues frozen in shock, Jonas turned to finally meat their eyes.

"Don't look so startled." He joked dryly. "I would think that after _Xana_ nothing would surprise you anymore."

"Yeah well – _this_ is a little – _bigger_ than Xana." Yumi admitted, still staring at him in complete astonishment, before _Aelita_ finally proved to be the first one capable of moving again and approached him.

Taking in his new _digital_ form, she realized immediately that it _wasn't_ his original avatar; instead it was a slimmer kind of jumpsuit that still _obviously_ held the unique personality of its owner, while also appearing more mature and battle-hardened.

Looking up at his face again Aelita finally came to understand why those eyes were so familiar, and why the smile he gave her felt so _right_. And it was this new realization that at last gave her the voice to connect a _true name_ with the person in front of her.

" _Odd_?"

* * *

 _ **Illestkid**_ has earned kudos for being the " _first_ " to guess that Jonas was Odd.

And **The Boy Who Could Is Me** also gets props for pointing out many of the little hidden details that were there to help you all figure it out.

You are both very perceptive, Go You! ;)

...

Reviews Please


	10. Chapter 9

I'm gonna keep calling the _older_ Odd; " _Jonas_ ," just so everything isn't overly complicated.

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Chapter 9:

Jonas sighed as his real name was spoken and lifted a hand to rub a finger of his paw between his eyes.

"Yeah, Princess," He finally admitted with another smile as he looked down at her again. "It's _me_."

"Odd?" Yumi repeated as she walked up as well and quietly grabbed his hand to inspect the claws at the end, which finally convinced her that what she was seeing wasn't some kind of illusion.

"You're –" The _younger_ Odd stated in shock as the boys approached too. "You're – _me_."

"How is that _possible_?" Jeremy added sternly.

"Honestly, guys." Jonas proclaimed sourly as he glared at them lightly. "Do you _really_ need to act so _shocked_? I don't look _that_ different – do I?" He added quietly in Aelita's direction, only for her to _nod_ in response, causing him to sigh again.

"But – _how_?" Ulrich finally put in, leaving the older version of his best friend to look at him.

"You know we _do_ technically have a _time machine_. Is it really so strange to think that someone from the _future_ would visit once in a while?" He proclaimed only to earn another round of nods from everyone in question, which left him to glare at a wall. " _Why_ do I even ask these questions?" He muttered to himself before turning back to them again.

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy quickly added in a stern tone, seemingly understanding that he would only be in their time if there was a _serious_ problem with the future.

"I'm not really sure how much I should tell you." Jonas admitted quietly before sighing again. "But than again – if my mission is successful my timeline won't even _exist_ anymore."

" _Mission_?" Aelita repeated questionably leaving Jonas to smile before lifting his hand to press a button on the clasp of his belt, which caused his Lyoko form to shift back into his earlier appearance, minus the light gray hoodie he had donned to hide his identity, instead featuring a dark purple button down shirt with the sleeves roiled up and covered partly by a black vest.

Though it wasn't nearly as _crazy_ as his younger look; and actually seemed to posses a level of style not originally present, the _color_ , of course, _screamed_ of who he really was. On top of that, his _hair_ almost single-handedly made him impossible to identify.

Without the use of color treatment that his younger self was usually so found of; it had return to the _dark_ gold of his natural color, and what's more, it was missing the strange style that keep it spiked to a point; instead just allowing it to lay calmly around his face without any real effort.

Clearly taller and far more mature than his younger counterpart; it seemed that despite his earlier quip, Jonas really had been counting on the fact that he looked _completely different_ to hide who he really was, and it had _worked_. If they hadn't seen the familiar _tail_ and _claws_ of his Lyoko form they might have never figured it out.

"You see; _this_ is why I wanted to keep my identity a _secret_." He informed them sourly after they had continued to just _stare_ at him for another minute leaving him to sigh loudly and turn to look at a wall as he grumbled something else. "Aelita told me it would be like this; I just didn't want to believe her."

'But I guess this _is_ better than the universe _imploding_.' He added as a thought to himself, remembering the words of Back to the Future's Doc Brown, regarding the misfortune caused by meeting one's younger/older self. It would seem that Xana really _had_ helped in that regard, granting them a certain level of acceptance for the impossible.

"Aelita?" Jeremy repeated as he realized that he wasn't talking about _their_ Aelita, but the one from his own time. "Is _she_ the one you've been communicating with?"

"Yeah," Jonas stated tiredly as he backed up a few steps in order to lean against a beam and slid down it to sit on the ground, clearly very exhausted. "She's the one who sent me here."

"Are you okay?" Yumi put in worriedly, as she finally shook herself out of her shock and approached him, though still a little reluctant.

"Just _tired_ , despite what you may think, being a _specter_ takes a lot of effort." He explained before leaning his head back to close his eyes. "I need to _rest_ for a minute, regain my energy. Can I trust you not to kill me in my sleep?" He added as he turned to look at Ulrich in particular with a small smile.

The kid promptly made a disgruntled face, but it slowly reformed into something more understanding and he nodded.

"Thanks." Jonas stated before closing his eyes again and fell into the same trance-like sleep he had done before, leaving Yumi to kneel down at his side and carefully reach out to check for a pulse.

"He's _not_ a specter." She stated after a moment. "He's _possessed_."

"It's no wonder he's so tired." Jeremy put in. "To be possessed for _this long_ puts a lot of stress on the body. On top of that it has to take a lot of energy to _change forms_ like that."

"Is he gonna be okay?" Aelita added, causing her friend to shake his head.

"I'm willing to bet that the only reason he was possessedto begin with is because his trip into the past would have _killed_ him otherwise." Jeremy explained solemnly, causing everyone to look at him in horror. "If the specter were to leave his body now it would likely have the same effect. This is the only way he can _survive_ here."

"But – why would he do this to himself?" Yumi stated emotionally, before turning slightly to look at Odd; who had remained unusually _quiet_ throughout this discovery.

"There must be something _wrong_ with the future." Jeremy continued sternly. "That's the only reason he'd come here. The only reason he'd need to go _this far_."

"Like _what_?" Ulrich put in, but Jeremy only shook his head again.

"I don't know." He admitted as he looked down at Jonas once more. "But it can't be _good_."

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	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The five of them talked quietly among themselves for a few minutes, bouncing ideas around for what they were going to do about this new development, eventually leading to Yumi having to return home to face her family, who were likely ready to ground her until she was 50.

In the end, it took a little over half an hour for Jonas to wake up again, over three times as long as his first power nap, which made them wonder if something was _wrong_. However, this time around he was woken by the sound of his _watch_ beeping, which caused everyone to look at it as he opened his eyes.

"Meh," He proclaimed simply as he lifted his wrist to see what it wanted, but didn't seem that excited by the message.

"Something wrong?" Aelita asked kindly as she walked over to kneel down next to him and he smiled once again, something she was beginning to realize came just as naturally to him as it did to their Odd, which she found admittedly refreshing, given how much he had _changed_ over the years, she was glad he hadn't lost _that_.

"I'm just running out of time." He explained, causing the others to walk up quietly.

"What does that mean?" Jeremy asked again as Jonas used the beam behind him to pull himself back to his feet; a process that seemed to wane on him more than it should have, almost like he wasn't _accustomed_ to feeling fatigue.

"It's just that I only have a limited amount of time to complete my mission before the –" He petered off slightly as he said this before sighing and looked away again as he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Never mind," He added dismissively.

"Hey," Ulrich complained sternly as he walked up to him. "How do you expect us to _help you_ if you won't _tell_ _us_ anything?"

"I _don't_ expect you to help me." Jonas admitted simply.

"Then _let_ us." Odd suddenly put in, causing the older man to look at him quickly. "If I know _myself_ ; and I _do_ – I wouldn't be putting my life on the line for some flimsy little thing. Either our friends are in danger, or the world, or _both_. And if _that's_ the case, I wouldn't _risk_ going it _alone_ , I'd swallow my pride and _take_ all the help I could _get_."

"Pride has nothing to do with it." Jonas countered calmly. "The fact that I _don't_ _remember_ this happening proves that I've _already_ changed the course of time. So I'm now altering _your_ timeline, a timeline I have no _business_ interfering with. The less I change your lives the better prepared you'll be."

"That doesn't sound like the Odd _I know_." Ulrich pointed out truthfully, causing the older man to sigh once again.

"You're probably right; I'm not the person I once was." Jonas admitted, causing them to go quite again. "Fifty years of _war_ can do that to you."

"Fifty _years_?" Aelita repeated as they all looked up in shock of this sudden admission. "You _can't_ be that old." She continued truthfully, causing him to smile again as he looked at the ground.

"Just like _you_ shouldn't still be 13?" He countered kindly, leaving her to close her mouth as she realized what he was referring to with that statement. "No, I'm _not_ this old." He continued calmly. "I should be in my _40's_ by now, but I've been _trapped_ in the digital world for almost 20 years."

"What?" Jeremy stated in horror before walking forward to get in his face. "No – that's impossible. If you were stuck on Lyoko _I –_ would have gotten you out."

"I have no doubt about that." Jonas admitted sadly, causing the genius to back up a step.

"Wait – I'm not –" He started before the man reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder supportively.

"No," He said simply. "You're not dead."

"Then – _why_ wouldn't I help you?" Jeremy countered quickly, determined to make him answer his questions, regardless of the consequences, which left Jonas to look at the ground again for a moment as if deciding what to tell them and what to leave out.

"Screw it," He finally proclaimed after some thought and looked back at them. "Let's go down to the lab – I'll tell you _everything_."

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	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

"Okay." Jonas stated calmly as he sat down to lean against the wall of the computer lab and looked around at them. "What do you wanna know?"

"Well, first – let's start with; _why_ are you _here_?" Aelita started.

"If I remember correctly, you _haven't_ yet met _Tyron_ yet, have you?" He asked, causing them to look rather confused and he nodded as his question was answered. "At first he wasn't much of a _threat_ , Xana was just _hiding_ in his supercomputer, but when Tyron found out about him, he tried to find a way to _control_ Xana."

"Control?" Jeremy repeated in disbelief.

"Clearly that was a very _bad_ idea." Jonas agreed sourly. "Tyron didn't _care_ how powerful Xana got, or how much _destruction_ it caused. Just that he was able to _use_ that power for himself."

"He's _mad_." Aelita proclaimed and Jonas laughed lightly.

" _Yes_ , yes he is." He muttered to himself before going on. "The problem was that, _obviously_ ,Xana wasn't too thrilled to have someone trying to manipulate him. We tried to warn Tyron, but he wouldn't listen, we tried to stop Xana, and nearly succeeded a few times, but in the end he was _persistent_ , finding _anyway_ to survive, even using _us_."

"How so?" Jeremy asked quietly, but the man just shook his head and continued with his further statement, obviously not willing to go into that little detail.

"Eventually, the battle for control between Xana and Tryon escalated into a _war_. It nearly _crippled_ the world-wide electrical grid." He went on. "Eventually, the government tracked the problem to Tryon; they were going to _arrest_ him. We thought our problems were finally _over_ , but –"

"But?" Aelita encouraged kindly when he paused for a moment to look at the floor.

"But we didn't realize until it was too late that he had planned to _avoid_ the punishment." He stated, leaving everyone to go quiet as they listened to him. "It's true that his supercomputer isn't as _powerful_ as ours, but it still had a basic function to control _time_."

"So, like your Franz Hopper, he was going to continually rewind a single day until he could find a way to avoid the government." Jonas continued calmly as he looked at Aelita for a moment. "But he didn't realize what _forces_ he was messing with, in the end he didn't get a time loop, instead he – he _froze_ time."

"What?" Jeremy stated in shook as he realized what that meant.

"What's more he wasn't _immune_ to his own computer, so now he's _stuck_ too." Jonas stated in a tone that suggested he had retained a _lot_ of hatred for this man. "Aelita and I were spared because we were still on Lyoko when it happened, but Jeremy, Ulrich and Yumi were all on earth."

"So, they're – _trapped_." Aelita finished quietly and he nodded.

"We couldn't contact Jeremy, most of the digital world was frozen as well, so we couldn't even leave Lyoko, and without time moving at its normal pace we can't be rematerialized either." He explained coldly. "The world is _trapped_ with everyone in it, and there's _nothing_ we can do to _stop_ it."

"So, that's why you came to the _past_?" Jeremy finally understood. "Because it's the _only_ point in time that can still be manipulated?"

"That's right." Jonas admitted solemnly.

"So, then – _how_ do you intend to stop this from happening?" Aelita put in.

"Aelita and I have been working on that for a while." He answered simply. "And we eventually found a way."

"And – are you going to _tell_ us?" Ulrich stated, leaving his older friend to look at him and smile.

"Nope,"

"What?" Odd countered in shock and was about to continue when he was interrupted.

"I told you _all_ you need to know. In fact, I probably told you _too much_." Jonas proclaimed seriously. "The only person in this room who can stop that future from happening is _me_. So, there's _no point_ in telling you _how_."

"But –" Odd started again only for Jeremy to speak up this time.

"He's probably right." He admitted solemnly. "Knowing too much about our future, even if it _isn't_ our future anymore; is dangerous." He added before looking up at Jonas again. "The question we should be asking now is – _how can we help_?"

"Unfortunately, we can't do _anything_ right now." Jonas suddenly admitted sourly as he moved to lay his arm over his knee in annoyance. "I've jumped _too far_ back in time; Tyron's computer isn't even onlineyet."

"How far away is it?" Jeremy stated curiously.

"Well, I've never been good at math, but – I'm guessing around _three weeks_." He proclaimed calmly.

"That's not that far away." Ulrich commanded sternly.

"I'm aware." Jonas muttered as if talking of the weather.

"Then you want to tell me _why_ you're not _preparing_?" Ulrich countered in annoyance.

"Because, for one; I'm _already_ prepared, I just can't do anything about it right _now_ , and two; Aelita is already aware that I didn't hit the mark, she's working on the problem. So once I hear back from her, we can move forward."

"Oh," Ulrich stated dryly, causing Jonas to laugh under his breath.

"Relax, good buddy, I know it may not _seem_ like I'm the best person for this job, but I've been training for this a long time." The man proclaimed casually. "I _know_ what I'm doing."

* * *

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	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"So –" Aelita started again nervously as she walked up to Jonas again, who had been lounging in a corner listening to music from his extremely futuristic phone, which she wasn't sure she should even be _looking_ at.

"What's up, Princess?" He asked kindly as he removed his headphones to give her his full attention, leaving her to sit next to him quietly.

"Can you tell me – do I ever see – my _father_ again?" This question made the happy air about him drop slightly, but his smile remained.

"Yes," He answered making her heart soar. "You even see your _mother_." He added, which nearly caused her heart to stop beating all together.

"Really?" She begged nearly in tears.

"Hey," He complained lightly as he reached up to brush them again. "I didn't tell you that to make you _cry_."

"I'm sorry.' She muttered as she tried to wipe them away through her joy before looking back at him. "You're – you're not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?" She demanded quietly.

"Would I lie to you?" He countered which left her to look into his eyes again, where she could see more and more of her best friend in the kindness of their golden color.

"No," She finally answered confidently before reached over to take his hand and smiled again as she absorbed that. "No, you wouldn't." She repeated before she was forced to wipe away more happy tears from her face.

"Oh, come on, Princess." He complained kindly as he tried again to get rid of them. "You're making me look bad."

"I'm sorry," She laughed lightly before looking up as Ulrich walked over as well, and stuck his hands in his pockets as he considering Jonas for a moment, before talking.

"So, are you ever going to tell us what those _creatures_ were?" He stated seriously, clearly referring to the attack that had survived a few hours ago.

"We call them _ninjas_." He explained calmly. "They use to be human-controlled avatars _like us_. They worked for Tyron."

" _Use_ to be?" Jeremy repeated as he turned his chair to look at him as well.

"When he started his failed time-loop, he created _mindless_ versions to defend his computer." He continued simply. "They're part of the reason we can't shut down the system. They're programmed to _protect_ it regardless of the circumstances. They're basically helping to _destroy_ the world and they don't even _know_ it."

"At least _Xana_ knew enough to _adjust_ his attacks if they endanger his existence." He added sourly as he turned to glare at a wall. "Sometimes I wonder if Tyron isn't _worse_. He's too _smart_ to admit when he needs help and too _dumb_ to see his own flaws."

"Sounds like a dangerous combination." Jeremy admitted, causing Jonas to scoff knowledgeably.

"So these – _ninjas_ –" Ulrich started again. "What are they doing here?"

"They tracked me." Jonas admitted solemnly.

"How?" Aelita put in worriedly.

"I have a – a _program_ specifically designed to take out Tyron's computer, they can _sense_ it." He explained calmly. "Aelita _said_ they would follow me, but I didn't expect them this _soon_."

"So I guess it's fair to say we're gonna see them again?" Odd put in and Jonas nodded, leaving the younger to sigh. "So much for our _vacation_."

"Which is probably why I shouldn't be here," Jonas added as he got to his feet solemnly causing them to look at him again. "The supercomputer hides my signal to a _point_ but I still can't risk them _finding_ this place." He added as he moved to get into the elevator again.

"But what if they find _you_?" Aelita countered

"Yeah, you seemed to fair pretty well against them, but it still took a _lot_ out of you. Wouldn't it be better to _hide_ the program somewhere until we need it?" Jeremy put in as Jonas reached out to push the up button, but paused in response to these words before closing his eyes as he let that sink in.

"Probably," He admitted leaving Aelita to walk toward him again worriedly.

"What _aren't_ you telling us?" She demanded, causing him to smile before looking at her again.

"Never could hide anything from you." He stated calmly, but pulling his hand back in order to put it in his pocket. "The truth is this program is – _apart_ of my avatar, apart of my _body_. I _can't_ separate from it."

"So, it's actually _the_ _specter_ that's the program." Jeremy guessed, leaving the man to look away calmly as he considered this.

"Yeah, let's go with that." He agreed, causing everyone to watch him questionably for further explanation, but, instead, he just reached back out to push the button that would allow him to exit the factory.

"Whoa, wait a minute." Odd ordered this time as he rushed forward to stop him, which immediately caused Jonas's calm demeanor to shatter like a plan of glass as he jumped away from the touch, but not before their hands briefly made contact, causing them both to flicker violently as if something beyond their control was trying to _erase_ them.

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	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

"Odd!" Ulrich called as he raced to his friend and pulled him away, causing the strange effect to stop and the two quickly took in a huge breath of air, as if they hadn't been able to breathe until that moment. "Are you alright?" He demanded of his roommate, who still seemed to be in shock. "Odd!" He yelled again, finally bringing him out of it.

"Whoa!" He said quietly, before looking down at his hand as he opened and closed it experimentally.

"What was _that_?" Ulrich ordered sternly as he turned to face Jonas who was still leaning against a wall, trying to catch his breath.

"Two bodies of the _same_ particles can't take up the _same space_." Jeremy answered as he came over to see if his friends were alright.

"Did you just call me a _particle_?" Odd asked sourly, which allowed them all to calm a little as they realized that he likely wouldn't have joked in such a way if he was badly hurt or shaken.

"Would you repeat that in _English_?" Ulrich ordered, still a little stressed out.

"They're the _same person_." Jeremy tried again, earning a glare from the other boy for his trouble. "The dimensional fabric of reality can only withstand the presence of _one_ person of the _same_ _matter_ in the same space at a time. If they were to _touch_ , they could cause reality to _rip_ or _extract_ them in order to correct itself."

"So, you're saying we could – _disappear_ if we come in contact?" Odd translated simply and Jeremy nodded, leaving the kid to nod in agreement. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

"Yeah, great, but someone wanna tell me _why_ no one mentioned this _before_?" Ulrich demanded as he turned to Jonas again who had finally managed to make himself comfortable against a wall of the elevator.

"I'm not gonna deny that I knew that might happen." He admitted simply. "But, to be honest, I've been a little – _preoccupied_."

"Is there anything _else_ we should know?" Ulrich complained loudly, causing the man to look at him strangely from the corner of his eye.

"I know it's been a _while_ since I've seen you, but I don't recall you being quit this _uptight_." Jonas stated truthfully, causing the kid to get to his feet in order to walk over and stare him down.

"You keep secrets that could _hurt_ us and you expect me to just _trust_ you?" He growled sternly, leaving Jonas to look at the floor in acceptance of that. "I don't care if you're Odd or Jeremy or _who_ you are. My friends are _here_ , in _this_ time and I'm not gonna let you or anyone else _hurt them_."

"There, that's more like the Ulrich I know." Jonas countered, which did not go over well with said person, who promptly _attacked_ him.

"Hey!" Aelita complained as she tried to separate them with Jeremy's help. "That's enough, Ulrich." She commanded when they had finally pulled him away and she stood between the two in order to keep him from starting the fight again.

However. while Ulrich looked ready to strike at any moment, Jonas just leaned back against his spot to wipe a little blood from his lip, seemingly content with what had happened.

"Feel better?" He asked quietly, causing the tension in his younger friend to relax slightly.

"Yeah," He admitted simply, causing Jeremy and Aelita to look between them in shock. However, Odd appeared completely unfazed but the small war that had just transpired.

"Someone wanna tell me what just happened?" Jeremy demanded sternly when Ulrich actually _smiled_ slightly for the first time in days.

"Nothing important," Jonas proclaimed with a wave of his hand. "He just needed something to _hit_."

"What?" Aelita muttered in confusion, but the only response she got was for Ulrich, Odd and Jonas to laugh amongst themselves.

"It's okay, Princess." Odd explained kindly. "It's a – _guy thing_."

"You two do this _a lot_?" Jeremy countered.

"We're _roommates_." Ulrich stated as if taking of the weather. "Getting on each other's nerves is kind of part of the process." He admitted, which only left Jeremy to look between the three skeptically, clearly not getting it.

"' _Guy thing_ 'my foot," He muttered sourly as he relented to the argument and headed back to his chair. "Sounds more like an ' _idiot thing_ ' to me."

…


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

It wasn't long after the end of the little squabble that the elevator doors began to close again in response to someone calling it from up top, and considering that Jonas was still sitting inside, he just waved calmly to the rest of them as he let it take him there.

Yumi gasped in slight shock when she saw him, but otherwise didn't comment on his presence.

"Zup?" He proclaimed as he got to his feet and calmly walked past her.

"What happened?" She asked, indicating his lip.

"Now Yumi, I know I'm handsome, but Ulrich wouldn't approve." He joked, making her blush profusely and he laughed. "I'm fine," He finally answered, before heading for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" She demanded as she watched him ascend to ground level.

"I've got a few things to take care of." He called back with a wave over his shoulder, not even looking back as he walked out into the early morning.

"But –" She tried to continue, however, he was already gone, leaving her to glare at the entryway sourly before getting into the elevator and rode it down to the lab. "Where is he going?" She asked as the doors opened to find everyone sitting about in a general sense of boredom.

"He didn't say." Ulrich answered calmly.

"Did he tell you any –" She began again as she moved to exit to the machine only for something under her foot to crack and she quickly pulled back to look down at a tiny black device on the floor, which she quickly picked up and inspected to insure she hadn't broken it. "What is this?" She revised, causing Jeremy to look at her.

"Wait a minute," He proclaimed, before jumping out of his chair to snatch the thing from her hand. " _This_ is what he used to erase his data from the supercomputer."

"Are you sure?" Odd put in curiously.

"Yeah, I recognize it from the video." He announced as he rushed back to his computer and made to plug it in, only for Aelita to grab his hand before he could.

"Jeremy, we _can't_." She attempted. "There could be something on there that we _shouldn't_ know."

"Or there could be something that could help us in the long run." Ulrich put in, through he wasn't as forceful about it as he had been previously.

"What's got you in such a good mood all of a sudden?" Yumi countered, causing him to shrug.

"Me and Jonas had a little _talk_ , and well –" He started, before looking up at her. "I'm just finally convinced that he really _is_ Odd. That's all."

"Oh?" She stated questionably as she folded her arms and glared at him. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the split lip he had earlier, would it?"

"Now, why would you think _that_?" He proclaimed with a smile making her shake her head at him, however the conversation was quietly interrupted.

"Wait – he still _had_ it?" Jeremy put in suddenly, causing everyone to look at him.

"Yeah, why?" Yumi answered with a raise eyebrow.

"Because he's a _specter_ , if he received an injury it should have completely _disappeared_ by now." He explained truthfully, leaving them all to go quiet as they considered the truth of those words.

"Come to think of it – he wasn't very _active_ when he was here, was he?" Ulrich pointed out.

"What does that _mean_?" Yumi demanded worriedly.

"I don't know, but if his specter looses it's power he could _die_." Jeremy proclaimed sternly, before turning back to the little device in his hand then back at the pink-haired girl still standing next to him. "Aelita, he may not _know_ that he's losing energy, we need to know how to _help him_."

"Okay," She finally relented, allowing him to stick the thing into one of the ports on the side of the screen and started typing again in an attempt to hurriedly find the correct data.

"We should try to find him." Yumi commanded again leaving everyone else to look at her as they absorbed her words.

"She's right," Jeremy agreed distractedly as he continued to sort through the information on his screen. "I'll call you if I find anything."

…

Jonas's movement was slow and calm as he walked the quiet pathway through the woods, taking in the sights, the sounds, the smells and the textures that he had been _unable_ to sense for so many years, and even though he was very aware that he no longer had the energy to _fight off_ the ninjas he knew were currently stalking him from the shadows; he was at least glad to have been able to experience the trees of his home world – _one last_ _time_.

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	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Ulrich led the charge as they rushed into town looking for their missing comrade, however, no matter where they looked, they kept coming up empty handed.

"Where could he _be_?" Aelita stated worriedly, through her hard breathing.

"He couldn't have gotten that far," Yumi put in truthfully as they stopped in their tracks to take a breather, allowing her to look back the way they had come, "Maybe we _passed_ him." She suggested, which seemed plausible, so they quickly started running in the opposite direction, this time paying more attention to the dark allies and businesses in the area.

"Good grief, this is like trying to find a hay in a needle stake," Odd proclaimed some ten minutes later of still nothing.

"Well, then enlighten us, where would _you_ go?" Ulrich countered sternly, causing his friend to wince as he thought that over.

"I don't know," He admitted unhelpfully, before suddenly stopping in his tracks as they passed the entrance to the park where the Hermitage resided.

"What?" Ulrich asked exhaustedly as the rest of them stopped to look back at him.

"If I had just spent 20 _years_ in a virtual world – I'd want to see _trees_ ," Odd answered honestly, which caused them to look toward the woods.

"You're sure," Yumi asked and he nodded confidently. "Alright, let's go," She commanded and they quickly rushed into the forest.

…

"What about the _Hermitage_? Would you go there?" Yumi demanded breathlessly, when they were still coming up with nothing to account for all their running.

"Are you kidding?" Odd proclaimed through his deep breathing exercises, "That house has already tried to kill me _three times_."

"Okay what about –" She was about to suggest before Aelita interrupted.

"Look!" She commanded, pointing to something in the trees and they all looked around just in time to spot a _shadow_ running through the forest ahead of them. "That's one of those _ninjas_ ," She announced, leaving her friends to nod in agreement, before moving to follow the creature.

…

Thankfully, in the end, the thing _did_ lead them to their friend, but, unfortunately, it also led them to a dozen more just like it; and on top of that Jonas, who was clearly unable to use his superior strength to drive them away this time, had already been cornered and driven to his knees as two of them held his arms behind his back to insure he didn't move.

The four of them smartly decided to hide in the trees until they had a plan to free him, but, as they watched the interaction, they realized they may not have the _time_.

"Looking for something?" Jonas asked one in particular as it raised its hand to produce a green light from its palm, which was obviously used to _scan_ the human.

However, the ninja didn't answer him, instead, just focused on its mission as the light zeroed in on something in Jonas's body and glowed red for a moment, clearly indicating that it had located what it was searching for.

"Virus found, _not_ distinctive of host," The ninja announced in an automatic voice as it lowered its hand again which allowed its swords to reappear in its hands. "Destruction protocol," It added, before crossing the blade in front of its body in preparation, " _Destroy_ host."

"No!" Aelita screamed as she raced from her cover, with her friends' right behind her, managing to take the group of specters completely by surprise in the process, which, thankfully, stopped their leader from killing their friend for the time being, but it wasn't enough to convince the others to release him.

Now that they knew the creatures could actually be _destroyed_ , and that there were no _humans_ inside that could be hurt in the process; unlike _Xana's_ specters, the Lyoko Warriors were a lot more willing to use whatever force necessary to beat the crap out of them.

Though the ninjas were still rather skilled – in a _mechanic_ kind of way, it was no different than fighting monsters on Lyoko, and with the use of sticks and rocks from the forest; they were able to take out several of them in only a few minutes.

However, with the main one busy and the group of flunkies that were clearly only guards, the two that had been holding Jonas, took the distraction as a chance to drag him away from the scene.

"Hey!" Ulrich called after them as he kicked one of the lower goons out of his way and rushed to intercept, only for the leader to appear in his way and nearly take his head off with one of its swords.

"Oh, how nice of you," He joked as he came up and expertly used his fighting skills to grab the ninja's arm and twist it enough for it to drop its other sword into his hand and he promptly used it to drive the specter back again.

They continued to dance around each other for several minutes, with Ulrich landing multiple strikes, considering the creature was almost _laughable_ predictable. Until, finally, he saw an opening and plunged his stolen weapon directly through its heart, unfortunately causing the sword to disappear with it as it was absorbed into oblivion, but he didn't give it much thought as he looked around to see how his friends were doing.

Discovered that they'd managed to take out all but one, which Odd currently in the process of tearing apart with a sharp stick, he didn't see any reason to remain where he wasn't needed, and bolted after Jonas again.

However, before he'd managed to locate them again, his phone rang, causing him to growl at it as he continued to run.

"Jeremy, I'm a little _busy_ right now," He complained into the device, "We found Jonas, but he was –"

"Stay away from him, Ulrich!" Jeremy suddenly ordered, causing the kid to skid to a stop in his tracks.

"What – _why_?"

"He's not who we think he is," The genius announced in a panic. "I found the _program_ he's carrying. It's _not_ just a _virus_ , Ulrich," He proclaimed sternly, clearly out of his mind with worry.

"What are you talking about? What is it then?" Ulrich demanded, only to drop his phone in shock as his friend answered.

"It's _XANA_."

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	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

"What?" Aelita asked in shock as she, Yumi and Odd located Ulrich again, only to find him standing in the middle of the path with an almost _pained_ expression on his face, as he squeezed his firsts so tightly that he was drawing blood.

"Xana," He repeated angrily. "The virus he's carrying, it's _Xana_ ," He answered loudly.

"No that – that can't be right," Yumi tried again, until she heard something from the ground and quickly picked up Ulrich's phone to speak into it. "Tell me it's not true Jeremy," She begged but he _couldn't_ give her that.

"He _played us_ ," Ulrich screamed in frustration, "He's been playing us the whole time."

"If that's true than why would the ninjas _attack_ him?" Aelita countered sternly.

"Xana probably just _used_ them to get us to lower our guard," Ulrich yelled angrily, before gripping his head in frustration as he continued his rant, "Damn it, I _TRUSTED_ him."

"There has to be another explanation," Yumi attempted, "If this _is_ Xana, why isn't there an activated Tower?"

"I don't know," Jeremy admitted from the phone she was still holding to her ear, "Ever since he escaped from the computer, I haven't been able to track him. For all I know, he may not even _need_ the Towers anymore."

"But –" Yumi stated again, desperately trying to find a way to explain this, but found that she couldn't.

"Guys," Odd suddenly put in with a tone of voice they didn't often hear him use, which caused them to look at him again, "I don't know if this means much coming from _me_ , but – I _don't_ think he was lying."

"What makes you say that?" Ulrich asked in a tone that didn't suggest he was doubtful or even disbelieving; instead he was just wanted to know.

"I honestly don't know why," Odd admitted sadly, "I just – when we _touched_ that – that _feeling_ – guys, he's _me_. I don't know how to explain it, I just _know_."

"I agree," Aelita put in causing them to look at her next, "He may have Xana inside him, but Xana doesn't _command_ him. He's too kind, he's too –" She added passionately before finally voicing what was on all their minds, "He's too _human_."

This left them all in a quiet state of contemplation as they took in her words and realized that deep down they all believed the same thing.

"And he needs our _help_ ," Odd added after a minute causing them to look back at him, and after another moment of eye-contact between them, they agreed.

…

"Jeremy, can you _track_ him?" Ulrich asked into his phone as they reached the edge of the forest, coming out on a paved road with not a lot of people around.

"He doesn't have his hard drive anymore," The genius proclaimed truthfully, "But I'm gonna try something else. Maybe I can track his _specter_."

"How long will it take?" Ulrich countered as they started walking down the sidewalk, scouring the area around them, trying to find anything out of place, but all seemed quiet.

"Just give me a couple minutes," Their non-present member stated as Ulrich listened to him typing away on his computer.

"Jeremy, I don't know if we _have_ a couple minutes," The kid commanded sternly, "They were planning to _kill him_."

"I don't know; the _grunts_ didn't seem like the type to take action without their _leader_ ," Odd pointed out truthfully.

"All the same, we still need to find him," Yumi added before Jeremy's voice interrupted them with a loud chirp of approval.

"I found him," He announced happily, "And he's nearby."

"Where?" They all demanded as one.

…

"Why _here_?" Odd complained loudly as they looked up at the familiar image of the abandoned house, known more appropriately as the _Hermitage_ , "Honestly, what does this house have against me? What did I ever do to it?"

"Be quite!" Yumi ordered as she reached over to cover his mouth, before leading the way through the gate and started their search around every corner of their missing friend.

"You're getting closer," Jeremy spoke from the phone, before fading out a little as he typed something else, "You better hurry; it's getting harder and harder to see him. I think his specter is _dying_."

"What's that gonna do to him?" Aelita asked quietly.

"I don't know, but given how _weak_ he's become, it can't be good."

"Are we gonna be able to restart the specter if it dies?" Ulrich asked next.

"I doubt it," Jeremy admitted, "But I may be able to possess him with one of my own, that might _help_."

"Might?" Ulrich repeated angrily.

"I don't know _enough_ about his condition to know how to help him Ulrich. I'm doing everything I can."

"Shush!" Yumi suddenly ordered as she ducked behind a wall and they all crowded around her before looking over to find the back door to the house had been torn right off it's hinges and thrown across the yard.

"Come on," Ulrich took charge and led the way to the entrance, once again looking around the corer to find the ninjas standing at the end of the hallway, protecting the place he knew all too well as the _boiler_ , he room he and Yumi had nearly lost their own lives in not even a year before, "You know something Odd, you may have a _point_. This house _is_ trying to kill us."

"Told you," His friend grumbled sourly.

"Let's go," Aelita ordered, causing the boys to quickly move inside to hide behind a large dresser, where they checked again to make sure they hadn't been seen, before running around to duck underneath the staircase, allowing the girls to follow suit.

They realized pretty quickly that these so called _ninjas_ were not very attentive, or they could have simply only been programmed to _apprehend_ their captives before waiting for their leader to come back and finish the job.

All the same the Lyoko group was able to make it all the way to the door of the boiler room without being seen, which was when they realized the creatures had had their _backs_ to them the whole time.

It was hard to tell which way was the front with these things, considering they looked almost _exactly_ alike from both angles. But this helped them in the long run, as they were able to take them both out without having to fight at all.

Once dispatched, they quickly searched the area for more of them, though they knew only _two_ had taken their friend, before rushing into the room, where they finally located Jonas hanging from two chains that had been wrapped around his wrists, suspending him against a wall.

"Jonas?" Aelita asked worriedly as she reached him, carefully lifting his head to find that he was unconscious. "Odd," She tried kindly, praying that he would respond to his real name, but he remained quiet as Yumi and Ulrich moved to get him down.

"We need to get him back to the factory," Yumi ordered as they each got under one of his arms and walked him carefully out of the room and down the hall.

"Start up your Jeremification program, Einstein, we're on our way," Odd stated into the phone, making sure to stay well back, so he didn't come into contact with his older self again.

"Wait," Aelita interrupted as they made it outside and they stopped as she rushed up to Jonas again. "Something's _wrong_ ," She insisted before touching his face worriedly then checked for a pulse, "He's not _breathing_."

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	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

"Jeremy, he's _dying_ , we'll never get him there in time," Ulrich demanded loudly as they rushed through the forest, toward the factory, but they were still a ways off.

"Okay _stop_!" Jeremy ordered through the speakers of the phone and they all halted in their tracks. "Lay him on the ground and back away," He said next as they listened to him typing.

"Jeremy, what are you going to do?" Aelita asked as they did as they were told and quietly backed up several steps.

"I'm gonna try a _long distance_ possession," He explained sternly. "If Xana can do it, so can I," He announced confidently, before their attention was driven to the flickering street lights above them and they watched as the familiar form of specter morphed from the whiff of black smoke in the electrical discharge, before traveling down the pole to hover over Jonas for a moment, and then was carefully absorbed into his body.

The Lyoko Warriors stared at the scene in hope as a familiar yellow light that had accompanied Jeremy's last attempt at possession lit up the area for a minute.

"I never realized how – _painful_ that looked," Odd whispered mutely, given that he had been the first and _only_ person Jeremy had possessed in the past, until now.

"Jeremy?" Aelita begged the phone desperately when the light finally faded away, leaving their friend unmoving and unresponsive, "Jeremy, he's not moving."

"Hang on," The genius answered quickly as he typed several things into his computer before they heard the sound of the enter button being pressed, which was immediately followed by Jonas's body convulsing with the shock of a specter-caused _defibrillator_.

"What about now?" Jeremy commanded.

"No, nothing," Aelita said into the phone sadly and her friend quickly repeated the process again.

"Now?"

"It's not working, Jeremy," Ulrich answered this time as Aelita turned to burry her face in Odd's shoulder, unable to watch the process anymore.

"Okay, one more time," Jeremy answered sternly, before the button was hit again, followed by the shock, which was followed by Jonas letting out a pained scream, as he finally regained his life.

"Oh, thank god," Yumi proclaimed as they rushed to his side, only to find that he had lost consciousness again, but he was still _breathing_ , he was still _alive_.

…

They reconvened in the computer lab ten minutes later, where they carefully laid Jonas on the floor and watched over him carefully as they waited for him to wake up, leaving Jeremy to continue sorting through the hard drive, looking for answers to the _many_ questions that had come up in the last couple hours.

But, given what had just transpired, they were a little more willing to forget the _Xana_ thing for the time being and focus more on finding a way to help Jonas remain _living_ in their time.

"Why wouldn't he _tell us_ this would happen?" Jeremy muttered to himself about an hour later, causing Odd to walk over and look at the screen.

"What's up?" He asked quietly.

"He _knew_ , Odd," The genius proclaimed simply, "He _knew_ the specter would lose its power eventually and that he wouldn't be able to _survive_ the loss. So, _why_ didn't he _tell us_ , we could have _helped him_?"

"There's a lot about this situation we don't know and probably _shouldn't_ ," Aelita pointed out as she continued to sit with Jonas's head in her lap, so he didn't have to lie on cold, hard floor.

"But this seems like something _specific_ , something he _should_ have told us," Jeremy countered truthfully.

"Maybe this was part of his _plan_ ," Ulrich suddenly put in and everyone turned to look at him as he watched Jonas rest.

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked quietly, causing him to look at her.

"He didn't even _try_ to fight them this time. What if he _wanted_ the ninjas to capture him? What if this was how he had intended to pass Tyron the virus?"

"You mean the virus that is _Xana_?" Jeremy pointed out seriously.

"He said it himself," Ulrich countered sternly, "Xana would _adjust_ his attacks if his _existence_ was in danger." He repeated causing the room to go quite, "It wouldn't be the first time Xana worked _with us_ to get something he wanted. What if a 20-year war was too much, what if –" He started again before looking back at Jonas as he finished the inquiry, "What if the enemy of his enemy was his _friend_?"

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	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

When Jonas finally opened his eyes again it was nearly night again and everyone was there to greet him.

"Hey," Aelita said with a smile that lit up the world as she watched him come around.

"Aelita?" He asked in shock, reaching up to touch her face in an almost _loving_ manner. "Aelita come back; _please_ _come back_ ," He begged, causing her to grab his hand as she tried to comfort him, realizing that he was confused into thinking he was in his own time.

"Jonas," She used his code name in an attempt to get him to understand, which caused him to pause briefly. "Jonas, its okay, just breathe for me and _remember_ what happened."

" _Jonas_?" He repeated questionably, before looking around at the others who had gathered nearby, finally focusing on Odd; which seemed to bring back his memories, for he then quietly looked back at Aelita as he gripped her hand a little tighter, "This isn't my time is it?"

"No," She said kindly, leaving him to take in a deep breath as he closed his eyes again in a clear struggle to accept her words, before moving to sit up.

"I'm sorry," He offered and she smiled again as she reached out to help him remain sitting, considering that he was obviously still be very weak.

"It's okay."

"How do you feel?" Ulrich asked next, leaving the man to look at him quietly.

"Like a million bucks," He joked lightly, before attempting to get up, only to wince in pain and quickly stopped the movement, "On second thought – maybe it's only _ten_." He corrected leaving them to laugh as they tried to help him into a more comfortable position.

"Jonas," Aelita started again while she reached out to take his hand once more, causing him to look back at her, "We _know_ ," She finally admitted leaving him to sigh and look away.

"Xana?" He confirmed and she nodded. "I'm sorry, I – I _couldn't_ tell you, I didn't know how you would _react_."

"Unfortunately, that will still depend on what the _story_ is," Ulrich pointed out truthfully and Jonas nodded in approval before looking up at them again.

"Xana actually approached _us_ ," He started simply, "When Tryon's time-loop backfired he was trapped in his computer with very little of himself outside the system. Eventually he came to Lyoko and contacted Aelita and me. He had a plan, and it would work – but we needed to _team up_."

"He was our enemy, but even _he_ could see little value in a time-trapped world," He continued quietly, "We knew very well that once it was all said and done he'd go right back to his original plans, but – it was our only chance. It was to _save the world_."

"I can't think of many _better_ reasons for teaming up with an evil virus," Ulrich admitted, causing Jonas to smile slightly.

"But how did he get _inside you_?" Jeremy added leaving the man to look at him in shock. "When I possessed you with a new specter I realized Xana was _still_ in your body. So, the purpose of the original _wasn't_ to keep you alive in this timeline, it was to _protect_ you against Xana."

"He's _killing_ you?" Aelita put in sadly, when a minute of silence followed this reveal, and he quietly turned to look at her again as she squeezed his hand a little tighter, "Isn't he?" She finished kindly.

"Yes," Jonas confirmed simply.

"Then why don't you _kick him out_?" Ulrich demanded, knowing ever well that while other humans were susceptible to Xana's influence, the five of them were _stronger_.

"As I said, _a lot_ of Xana was left behind in the internet," Jonas explained quietly, "He wasn't _strong_ enough to survive on his own."

"So you –" Yumi started as she realized what that meant, but couldn't find the words to continued, however he seemed to have them.

"That's right," He agreed nervously. "I let him _live_ my _body_ ," He explained painfully, clearly finding it difficult to talk about this. "The _one_ time we could have _finally_ defeated Xana for good – and I _saved_ him."

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	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

"It wasn't your fault," Aelita told him kindly as she gripped his hand a little tighter, "You did it to save the world."

"Doesn't make it _better_ ," Jonas proclaimed sadly as he looked at the ground in a _defeated_ manner, "What if I saved the world _today_ , just to have him take it over _tomorrow_? How am I gonna _live_ with myself knowing I could have _stopped_ it?"

"This really _has_ eaten at you," She suddenly stated, causing him to look at her again, "The Odd _I know_ would _never_ _say_ _die_. He would _never_ give up." She added genuinely, leaving him to turn back to the floor again.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but the Odd you knew _died_ – a long time ago," He admitted quietly.

"No, he hasn't," Odd suddenly put in and everyone looked toward him as he approached a little closer than he was usually comfortable with, "He's just been _covered up_ ," He added sternly, "There's darkness in _everyone_ , even _me_ , but I don't let it tear me down – I don't let _rule_ me."

This was followed by a moment of silence as Jonas looked down again, before sighing loudly as he ran a hand through his hair in a dejected manner.

"Maybe I _forget_ how to do that," He muttered mostly to himself before sighing again as he leaned back on his hands, a little more _collected_ than he had been a moment earlier. Which seemed to be perfect timing, for that was when Jeremy's computer announced with a friendly tone that it had just received a message.

"It's for you," The genius informed the man; who sighed again and turned to give Aelita a sour look.

"You have an _uncanny_ ability to make me do _work_ when I'd rather _sleep_ ," He informed her, before struggling to his feet as she laughed.

Ulrich immediately moved to get under his arm again, fearing for all the world that the poor guy would fall without the support and helped him over to the computer so he could read over the encrypted message.

"Huh," He proclaimed thoughtfully once he was finished, causing Jeremy to panic slightly as he looked between the screen and Jonas several times.

"What?" He demanded. "Is it _bad_?"

"No," Jonas answered simply before reaching up to push a little button on the side of his hard drive which caused the computer to start running a whole list of programs. "Could you do me a favor?" He added then, leaving Jeremy to look between his screen and him questionably, clearly trying to figure out what he had just done.

"What?" The genius asked slowly; obviously a little reluctant to agree without knowing first what the man wanted.

"Could you send me to Lyoko?"

* * *

That's right, 20 chapters in and they're _Finally_ going to the digital world.

Hope I kept it entertaining.

;)


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

When Ulrich, Odd and Yumi hit the ground in the virtual world, they quickly moved to the side and looked up at the sky again to welcome Aelita and their latest companion. It was hard to decide what to expect having _two_ Odd's in the same place, but everything seemed normal as the older man landed in the Forest Sector as well, using his paws to cushion the impact.

"Whoa!" He stated calmly as Aelita touched down next to him and they all quickly walked to his side to help him up, but he only held up a hand to indicate that he was fine, "I'm okay, it's just – been a _while_ since I was virtualized," He informed them, before standing up straight and looked around the area with a sigh.

"Something wrong?" Aelita asked kindly and he shook his head sadly.

"Not really," He admitted, "It's just that, for a moment there, my mind was trying to tell me I was _home_."

"It really has been a long time for you, hasn't it?" Yumi asked and he turned to give her a small smile.

"It's hard to track time when time does exist, and when you can't _eat_ or _sleep_ ; the days only meld together that much more," He explained as he looked up at the sunless sky that never changed, "You _forget_ things you never thought you could, how the air feels, what its like to touch something soft – or smooth."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Aelita put in gently and he smiled again before looking down at her.

"I wasn't _alone_ ," He pointed out, "I think that's the only thing that made it _bearable_. If it wasn't for _you_ , I –" He started again, before cutting himself off as he turned to stare at the ground longingly, "Well – I don't think I would have _survived_ as long as I did." He admitted quietly, which hit the rest of them hard as they realized what he was insinuating.

However, he didn't let them dwell on that too long, as he started to walk calmly through the sector as if looking for something.

…

"So –" Ulrich interrupted after nearly an hour of nothing but walking, "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Residents," Jonas answered simply causing them to start slightly in confusion and look at each other for a moment.

"Jonas," Aelita started again as she moved to walk next to him, "I don't know what Lyoko is like in _your_ time, but _here_ , Xana and me were the _only_ things on Lyoko, and _neither_ of us are bound to the computer anymore. On top of that we haven't seen or heard anything from Xana for nearly a month."

"Yeah, I figured that was the case," He admitted calmly, but still continued to walk.

"So than, what are we doing?" Odd put in.

"Just looking for a good way to send a _message_ ," He proclaimed as they walked up to a seemingly random Tower where he finally stopped and looked up at it. "Huh," He added curiously.

"What's wrong?" Yumi asked and he shook his head again.

"I'd forgotten what they _originally_ looked like," He stated leaving them all confused once again.

"This is what they – _always_ look like." Ulrich pointed out.

"Yeah," Jonas agreed, "Except in the future the supercomputer will _evolve_ to better support itself. It seemed to decide that it likes _squares_ and the color _black_."

"What?" Odd muttered in confusion.

"Never mind," Jonas proclaimed before walking toward the wall of the structure and entered without any issue, leaving them to follow him a moment later, where they found him bringing up the interface on the main platform, as if it was second nature, something only _Aelita_ had ever been able to do before.

"How did you do that?" She asked in shock as she walked over to see what he was doing.

"With Xana in my body, I'm free to use the Towers however I want," He explained distractedly, before closing the program he was working on and carefully placed his hand against the virtual interface, causing the code screen to appear. "Jeremy," He said calmly and the genius responded with a simple 'yes', "You're going to see an activated Tower on your scan, but don't worry about it, okay."

"Okay," Jeremy acknowledge in confusion as Jonas proceeded to touch in a code on the screen, causing a word to appear a moment later. However, it wasn't the usual _Lyoko code_ they were accustomed to seeing. It, instead, said in angry red letters – _Code_ _XANA_.

* * *

Reviews Please


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

"What are you _doing_?" Ulrich demanded as he saw the name.

"Relax, it's just for show," Jonas answered calmly, "I need to get Xana's _attention_."

"But –" Ulrich started again, before Jeremy interrupted him.

"Jonas, I just got another message from Aelita," He announced, "I can't read it."

"Can you put it on this screen?" He requested as he turned back to the interface and, a moment later, it appeared. However, instead of the encrypted mess they had grown accustomed to seeing, it seemed to have taken on the form of a _massive_ program.

"What is that?" Aelita asked in shock, but didn't receive an answer as Jonas just lifted his paw to place his palm against the screen again and a moment later they watched as several lines of strange code started transferring themselves into his body. "What are you doing?" She added worriedly.

"It's okay," He informed her kindly while he closed his eyes to focus on the task at hand, "It's just a fail-safe."

"What kind of fail-safe?" Jeremy insisted, but he didn't receive an answer either, as the process was now finished, allowing Jonas to calmly take his hand back and the screen to go blank as it disappeared again.

"Nothing for any of you to be concerned about," He responded calmly, leaving them all to glare at him sourly.

"You certainly say that a lot. You think there's any chance you could just –" Jeremy started to refute before something showed up on his screen and he promptly forgot what he was complaining about, "Guys, a _monster_ just appeared outside the tower," He announced worriedly.

"Well that was _fast_ ," The older man stated impressively, as the genius on the other side of the computer went quiet for a moment in realization of _which_ monster it was.

"It's the _Scyphozoa_."

"What?" Aelita asked the ceiling in concern, before Jonas laid his hand kindly on her shoulder.

"It's okay; it's not here for _you_."

"But –" She started again, however he didn't let her finish.

"Why don't you stay here and deactivate the tower again." He suggested, before turning to walk back toward the entrance, "We won't be needing it anymore."

"Jonas, what are you going to do?" She demanded of him sternly, causing him to look back at her with a smile as he reached the wall.

"What needs to be done," He said simply before walking through the wall again.

"Wait –" She tried, but Ulrich quickly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

"We'll go with him, you stay here," He ordered leaving her to nod in understanding, before watching as her friends left the tower as well, only to get outside and find the strange jelly-fish of a monster floating about, clearly _very_ agitated again something.

"Hello Xana," Jonas spoke up as he walked toward the creature, causing it to slowly float away as if in _fear._

"You _sense_ it, don't you?" He asked the monster calmly, all the while continually approaching without concern, even as it continued to back away, that is until he reached out to grab one of it's tentacles to stop the retreat.

"Where do you think you're going? I've waited _20 years_ to give you this message and, dammit, you're gonna _take_ _it_ , whether you like it or not," He added in a _deadly_ voice that his friends were certainly not accustomed to hearing him use.

The creature started to admit its normal screeching sounds as it struggled to escape him, but his grip was firm and not about to give out. "Tell your boss to watch for this signal, to _beware_ this man," He stated as his hand started to admit a strange red glow; that seemed to be inadvertently consumed by the creature's data-stealing limb; where it was ultimately transferred to its brain.

"Tell Xana, that if he does this, if he _destroys_ that computer _before_ that future happens – I will _give_ him what he wants most."

"What?" Ulrich asked in shock, unable to figure out what the guy was talking about, but unfortunately his question was answered a moment later when Jonas finished his message.

"He can _escape_ the network, and live as _both_ digital data and _real matter_ ," He completed sternly, causing the Scyphozoa to suddenly stop its struggling and give him his full attention.

"A _body_ all your own, Xana," Jonas added quietly as he realized he was now talking directly to the virus itself, and carefully released his captive to take a step back and hold out his arms as if offering himself up for sacrifice, "I'll give you _mine_."

* * *

Reviews Please


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

"What?" Yumi demanded this time as Jonas's last words were spoken, however before they could act, Aelita suddenly rushed from the safety of the tower, having heard the whole thing.

"No!" Jonas screamed when he noticed this as well and turned to point his fist at her, causing a strange gantlet to appear around his hand, which was clearly his _weapon_ , "Keep her back," He ordered sternly, forcing her to stop in her tacks.

But, before anyone could do anything about it, the Scyphozoa quickly used the distraction to _attack_.

"Hey!" Jonas called out in surprise when it suddenly wrapped its tentacles around his body, paralyzing him as it started transferring data into his mind.

"No!" Aelita screaming as she tried to go to his aid, but the other warriors quickly stopped her.

"No Aelita, stay back, we'll –" Ulrich started to order, however he was interrupted when the forms of three Tarantulas suddenly appeared in the sky between them and their friend, before falling the ground where they immediately lifted their front arms to start shooting at them, forcing the four of them to scatter and hide behind digital trees and rocks to avoid being hit.

"We have to get to him; we can't let him _do_ this," Aelita insisted as she ducked down with Odd and Ulrich.

"I agree, but I don't think these guys are going to make that easy. It looks like Xana wants this pretty _badly_ ," Odd observed as he looked around the base of the tree, only to quickly duck again as the monsters kept them pinned down in their hiding spots.

"Guys," Yumi spoke up from the other side of the path, getting everyone's attention as she called for a battle strategy, leaving the two boys to nod in agreement before Odd quickly made to utilize his claws in climbing the tree he had been hiding behind, while Ulrich prepared for the signal.

With the monsters distracted with their constant barrage of laser fire, they didn't notice the purple cat getting into position high above and a moment later several arrows became embedded in one of their heads, causing the creature to explode into pieces, which in turn forced the other two to give their attention to the tree tops, allowing Ulrich just enough time to speed run from his barricade and take out another.

The last one immediately lowered its gun again to hit him in the chest with a burst of energy, which sent the warrior to the ground where he was momentarily defenseless until the familiar form of a metal fan flew through the air to hit the monster, causing it to expire as well.

Unfortunately, their victory was short lived. Even though they were able to reach Jonas again, it was only to find him kneeling rigidly on the pathway, gripping at his head in discomfort, while the Scyphozoa floated away again; its mission _completed_.

"Jonas?" Aelita asked worriedly, knowing very well the many _valuable_ things that creature could have taken from him, or all the _horrible_ things it could have put inside. "Jonas, are you alright?" She added as she reached him and tried to touch his shoulder only for him to turn quickly and claw out at her like a wild animal.

"Hey!" Ulrich complained as he pulled her out of harm's way, but didn't get the chance to continue the argument as he watched Jonas stand at his full height, looking at them with the kind of smile that didn't belong on the face of any _human_ , and the glowing red symbols in his eyes that told them that their friend was no longer there.

"Jonas?" Aelita tried again, before Ulrich quickly pulled her behind him as the Xanafied version of their older friend _attacked_ , nearly taking their heads off as he used his claws as actual weapons.

"Come on, man, don't let him take over," Ulrich tried to reason as Yumi and Odd attempted to drive him back. However, Yumi was quickly devirtualized when she got a little too close and he suddenly materialized his shield to use it as a battering ram, knocking her right off her feet and allowing him to fire off several arrows into her body with the same hand, before she even had a chance to recover.

Odd seemed to fair better, but only before his weapon was long-ranged, and Jonas couldn't afford to get too close to him. But that didn't stop his older version was shooting Odd's own arrows right out of the air; before devirtualizing him as well, leaving only Ulrich and Aelita in his wake.

"Jonas, stop it!" She ordered as the two warriors backed away.

"He can't hear you, Aelita," Ulrich informed her sternly as he held his sword out in front to keep the man from charging them.

"Aelita, get back to the tower," Jeremy commanded from the head set in a panic, knowing very well that she had to be inside for the Code: Earth program to bring her in, and if she was devirtualized before that, she _wouldn't_ be coming back.

"But –" She started to complain, however the samurai next to her wouldn't hear of it.

"Go!" Ulrich proclaimed loudly, continuing to hold his position as Jonas stalked toward them, even though he already knew he was no match for the guy.

"Aelita – the _tower_!" Jeremy yelled at the top of his voice, which finally forced her to relent and she ran toward the structure, leaving her friends behind to face their fates.

"Come on, then," Ulrich challenged as he hooped a little on his feet, before activating his super-sprint again and charged into the battle.

However, as he did so, something strange happened, Jonas just stopped in his tracks to suddenly lower himself to one knee; where he raised his hands to slam them together over his head, causing a _shock-wave_ to hit the warrior as _time itself_ was slowed to a crawl.

Even with his speed, Ulrich couldn't even move at a normal pace anymore, and could only watch as Jonas stood up again, clearly not affected by the ability at all, and casually took the warrior's sword right out of his hands before devirtualizing him with it as he walked by without a care in the world.

…

Ulrich cried out a little as he was rematerialized in the scanner, his brain falsely informing him that the virtual pain was _real_ , and he looked up to find Odd still standing in the room with an air of defeat about him.

"Jeremy, what _was_ that?" Ulrich demanded of the ceiling, already hearing the genius's meticulous typing through the speakers.

"I don't know," He admitted sternly, "Somehow he's slowed down _time_ ; it must be a new ability of his." He explained without much confidence in his voice, before the typing suddenly stopped and they could hear him panicking all over again.

"What's wrong?" Odd asked worriedly.

"Aelita – she _didn't_ make it to the tower," He yelled into his headset causing their hearts to stop, "I _can't_ bring her back."

* * *

Reviews Please


	24. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

After Ulrich was gone, Jonas just calmly threw the blade of the sword into the ground at his feet and continued to walk toward Aelita as the weapon disappeared in response to its welder no longer being present in the virtual world.

However, as he approached the last Lyoko Warrior, he didn't try to harm her, instead he just laid his hand on her shoulder, causing her to become immune to the time-warp as well, which made her nearly fall over in the process, but he held out an arm to keep her from hitting the ground.

Still remembering what had happened earlier, she at first backed away from him in fear, knowing very well that she didn't have a _weapon_ to fight him off with, but as she looked up into his eyes again, she found them to have returned to the soft, comforting gold of their original color, without any sign of _possession_ present.

"Jonas?" She asked hopefully, leading to him smile at her in such a way that she knew he was there.

"Sorry about that, Princess," He offered kindly, "The fail-safe could _only_ be activated with a _time stop_ , which I would have only used when fighting against _Ulrich_."

"Why didn't you tell us this?" She requested simply, not really angry or upset just genuinely confused

"I couldn't," He said sadly, "Xana was in my _mind_ , if I had told you; he would have found out, and everything would have been for nothing."

"But – why?" She asked again, leaving him to look at the ground with a sigh.

"I needed his power," He admitted, "But to get it I had to _trick_ him into entering my body; it was the only way to _capture_ him."

"I – I don't understand," She complained sourly, not really all that accustomed to not understanding things, "Why would you _risk_ it? If Ulrich had been devirtualized _before_ – Xana could still take you over, what if –"

"I know it's complicated," He interrupted softly, "But this was how it had to be."

"Why couldn't you just _tell us_?"

"Because it's not your _sacrifice_ to make," He answered calmly causing her to start slightly in response to his word choice.

"What sacrifice?" She demanded quietly, causing him to smile as he looked down again.

"I don't have a lot of time before Xana takes over again, and he'll most likely _survive_ , so you should probably take this time to go on that _vacation_ , he won't resurface for a few weeks."

"What aren't you telling me?" She asked as she realized he was hiding something behind this sudden change of topic.

"Never could get anything past you," He laughed quietly, before letting his smile drop, "I have to put this virus _directly_ into the network," He explained suddenly, "And with it _apart_ of me – there's only _one way_ to do it."

"What?" She stated in shock as she realized what he meant by that, "No – no, you _can't_." She insisted weakly, causing him to step forward to suddenly _hug_ her.

"Don't worry, Princess; I would never force you to _remember_ ," He whispered into her ear and she started again slightly, still unable to believe what he was telling her. However, she knew she didn't want to find out and quickly tried to break away so she could stop him, but while his grip was still soft and gentle, it was strong as iron.

"For what it's worth –" He added after another minute as he continued to hug her as if wanting to remember every detail. " _Thank you_ – for letting me say _goodbye_."

"Odd –" She tried to say as he stepped away again, however, the time bubble he was controlling quickly swallowed her up again as they lost contact and she was once more unable to move freely and could only watch helplessly as he walked toward the edge of the plateau; where he stopped momentarily to look up at the sky one last time, then threw himself into the digital sea.

* * *

Short Chapter

Sorry


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

"Aelita, Aelita," Jeremy's voice suddenly called out and she looked up from where she had fallen to her knees, to find that the time bubble had dispersed and all was normal again, which could only mean that Jonas had _succeeded_.

"Aelita, are you okay?" Jeremy tried again, as she looked back at the ground and cried, "Aelita," He added worriedly, "Please, get to the tower. Let me bring you back."

"Okay," She answered softly after a minute and got to her feet to phase through the wall of the structure that had been only a few feet away the whole time, finally allowing her friend to bring her back into the real world.

"Hey, Princess," A familiar voice said when the doors opened and she looked up to see _Odd_ standing worriedly on the other side, "You okay?" He asked kindly and she couldn't help but throw herself into his arms as she cried for all she had lost.

…

"So – that's it? He's really – _gone_?" Ulrich said in shock, once she had relayed what had happened on Lyoko and he quietly let himself slide to the floor as she nodded in confirmation.

"I don't understand," Jeremy fussed in his chair, for once unable to bring himself to look at the computer before him, "Why would he do that, why wouldn't he –" He tried to continue but found himself unable to.

"At least we know that his mission was _successful_ ," Yumi put in dryly. It was true the knowledge that their future was still intact should have really made them happier than what they were, however the group couldn't help but feel it had cost them _too much_.

"Can't you _find_ him?" Ulrich proclaimed demandingly as he got back to his feet and rushed to Jeremy's side, "Can't you bring him _back_?"

"There's no way," Jeremy relented sadly, "When you guys are on Lyoko your _bodies_ are stored in limbo, while your _minds_ become the avatar. To be swept away in the digital sea, is to have that mind _torn apart_. There would be so many _pieces_ , I'd –" He explained before closing his eyes and used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe away his own tears. "I'd _never_ find them all," He finished quietly.

"It just feels so _wrong_ ," Aelita exclaimed suddenly and they turned to look at her again, "He gave up _everything_ and no one will ever _know_."

"We will," Odd pointed out; however, it was at that moment a tone from the computer caught their attention and Jeremy quickly looked around to realize that the hard drive which was still connected to the interface was doing something he hadn't authorized.

"What – _no_!" He yelled in horror.

"What is it?" Ulrich demanded as they crowded around to see what was wrong.

"A Return to the Past has just been activated," Jeremy explained, as he frantically tried to stop it, but it was moving too fast – it was already out of his control, "Its parameters are set to focus entirely on _us_."

"What does that mean?" Odd added, only for Aelita to answer as she finally understood what Jonas had meant when he said she wouldn't _remember_.

"It's going to wipe our memories," She explained sadly. "We're not going to know _any_ of this ever happened," She proclaimed causing her friends to look at her in shock, right before a brilliant white glow lit up the room and consumed them in its light.

…

In the courtyard of a school under the name of Kadic, students exited the cafeteria in order to head for their next classes, though for some it was hard to hide their enthusiasm as it was their last day before a three-week holiday began.

Though in the case of five particular teenagers; family visits, camping trips and whatnot were the last things on their minds, which made their conversation anything but normal.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Yumi asked as they converged on their usual bench to talk privately among themselves for the rest of their lunch hour, "What if Xana attacks?"

"We haven't seen anything of him since he escaped the supercomputer," Jeremy proclaimed as he pulled out his laptop in order to type on it for a bit, checking several scans to see if they had located the evil virus yet, but no luck.

"Don't even think about it," Odd suddenly piped up with a big smile as he moved to sit on the back of the bench, "I'm not letting you out of this. We need a _vacation_ , and we already agreed. You two get the first week," He proclaimed, pointing at the two girls in their group, "And we get the second," He added motioning toward himself, Ulrich and Jeremy.

"Odd, you know I can't go, I have too much work to do," Jeremy complained.

"That's the whole _point_ ," The other kid quailed dramatically, "Vacation is a time to _LIVE_ , not _work_ , and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer, either you go with _them_ or you go with _us_. So, pick your poison."

This left everyone – excluding his current target, of course – to laugh loudly as they realized their fun-driven friend wasn't going to let it go.

"Alright, I'll go," Aelita agreed, causing the teenager to hoot with victory and for Jeremy to look like he'd just swallowed a bug.

"What?" He demanded quietly.

"Actually –" Yumi put in again. " _Suddenly_ – I really _do_ feel like I a need a vacation."

"Yeah, same here," Ulrich admitted.

"So, it's settled," Odd announced happily, and everyone nodded before turning to Jeremy for his answer, causing the genius to sigh as he closed his laptop in defeat.

"Alright, _fine_ – vacation it is."

* * *

Believe it or not, I wrote this entire story in _**Three Days**_... I won't lie; I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Though it did result in some really short chapters, mainly because this was a "experiment" on my part to test chapter length in my stories, I'm trying to find a good medium for future refreance, as some of my other stories had chapters nearly hitting page numbers in the 20's

I know readers like that, but I also know there's such a thing as there being 'too much information'. I've become a firm believer in the idea that a Chapter should "end" where a "Commercial" should start, otherwise the tense atmosphere I work to create is lost, due to not _safely_ stopping the flow.

I'm sorry if this dulled the experience for anyone, that was never my intention. But I would have never learned anything had I not taken that risk and I deeply appreciate all for you for putting up with me this long and helping to make my writing better and more enjoyable.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the ride.


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